There was no deliberate attempt by the British security services to withhold material from an investigation into the role of a former army agent in the IRA codenamed Stakeknife, an inquiry has found.
Concerns were raised last year after additional material was discovered in MI5's archive after Operation Kenova had concluded its interim report and prosecutorial decisions had been issued by prosecutors.
Files were submitted on 30 individuals - half of them were members of the IRA, most of the others were former British military intelligence officers.
No prosecutions were ever taken against the individuals.
It followed a lengthy £40m investigation into the activities of Stakeknife - west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci - who had been working for the British state as a high-level double agent within the IRA.
Operation Kenova spent years investigating Stakeknife's role in murder and kidnap and whether his army handlers had been complicit.
It found that his activities had probably cost more lives than he had saved.
In its interim report published last March it found that while the information he had provided had saved lives numbering in the high single or low double figures, other lives had been sacrificed to protect him.
Former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball was asked to examine why the additional material had not been passed to the Operation Kenova team.
In a report published today, she said she had "not seen evidence of a deliberate attempt to withhold the information identified in 2024".
"Therefore, I have concluded that none of the material was withheld from Operation Kenova at either an individual or an organisational level."
At the time of the discovery of the additional files, the head of Operation Kenova, Iain Livingstone, wrote to the Northern Secretary expressing his deep concern.
He said an initial assessment of the files showed that they contained "significant new material" which pointed to new investigative leads not previously available.
They did not identify any new murders which involved Stakeknife, but he said they appeared to undermine some of the evidence his investigators had been given.
"The material does appear to cast doubt on some of the documents and witness evidence obtained by Kenova and some statements made in the Interim Report."
Mr Livingstone today thanked Ms Ball for her work and said he had decided to publish her unclassified report.
"It is, of course, deeply regrettable that material was discovered and disclosed after the investigative phase of Kenova had concluded and after the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland had made decisions concerning prosecutions of the Kenova cases.
"The circumstances and relevance of the non-disclosed material will form part of the Kenova final report, which is due to be published later this year."
'Disappointing but not surprising'
A solicitor acting for a number of families whose loved one's murders were investigated by Operation Kenova, said the outcome of the review was disappointing but not surprising.
Kevin Winters of KRW Law said it was a "damp squib" of a report and the families he represented were used to being let down by the state.
"In many ways they can rightly feel insulted that they are being asked to buy into the notion that filing and indexing issues caused a communication deficit between Mi5 and Kenova.
"What is key for us is the extent to which this hitherto unavailable M15 material might have impacted on criminal referrals from Kenova to the PPS.
"We await to see how this and many other unresolved issues are addressed in the pending final Kenova report.
"It will take a lot to make up for the serious loss of confidence felt by families after todays news.
"In the meantime, we have written to sir Iain Livingstone seeking clarification on the concerns arising from Helen Balls findings," Mr Winters said.
Read more:
Scappaticci story brought into light by Operation Kenova
Scappiticci was unmasked as an agent in 2003 and later fled to England.
He died there of natural causes in 2023.
Operation Kenova had submitted a series of files recommending prosecutions against him but he died before decisions on whether to proceed were taken.
